1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to collapsible garment hangers and specifically to a thermoplastic resin folding hanger suited for rapid one-handed insertion into and removal from a small garment opening.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The collapsible garment hanger art has a long and proliferous history. Numerous practitioners in the art have suggested many improvements to the common garment hanger over the years. Many of these successive improvements arise from exploitation of the properties of new materials previously unknown in the garment hanger art. Most such improvements arise from a clearly-felt need in the art for convenience and compactness. The following discussion samples the progress of collapsible garment hanger art over the past century.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,184,288, F. W. Wesner discloses an automatic folding hanger having a pair of garment supporting arms shiftable from supporting position to relatively collapsed position by means of manual operation of a heavy metallic spring member. Wesner teaches the use of a wire hanger with arms that are connected indirectly to the metallic spring using a slide and cam technique. Unfortunately, the design as shown in the patent cannot be operated with mere hand pressure, the force required to collapse the spring is too great. Further, Wesner neither considers nor suggests any suitable nonmetallic material for implementing his automatic folding hanger.
In U.K. Patent 149,108, J. T. Tilley discloses an improved coat hanger having two separate shoulder pieces permanently hinged at their inner ends to one another and to the lower end of a suspension hook so that the shoulder pieces swing upwardly for folding the hanger and downwardly onto and against supporting abutments when the hanger is in use. Tilley's hanger collapses only for storage and is not suited for rapid insertion into and removal from a garment. Because the shoulder pieces swing upwardly when folded, his hanger cannot change positions while engaged with the garment.
In U.K. Patent 201,798, J. W. H. Dew discloses a clothes-hanger having a bowed or triangular formation with several hinged members that are folded together when not in use. Like Tilley, Dew neither considers nor suggests means for quick insertion and removal of his hanger. Dew's hanger cannot be reconfigured while engaging a garment and is merely a hanger capable of being folded compactly when not supporting a garment.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,676,936, D. R. Trevino discloses a garment hanger designed to fold in a neat and compact manner for packing in luggage or the like. Trevino uses a metallic Y-form neck element to couple a pair of nonmetallic shoulder members hingedly connected at their inner ends and adapted to bear against each other above the hinge point. Trevino neither considers nor suggests means for one-handed operation and provides no mechanical biasing means to force the hanger into deployment after insertion into a garment.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,137,700, F. W. Reehl discloses a garment hanger with two pivoted arms under the control of a tensioner that tends to spread the arms from a partially closed or collapsed position into a garment supporting position. Reehl's tensioner acts to collapse the arms when pressure is applied thereto. Reehl neither considers nor suggests nonmetallic spring tension means and his hanger requires two hands to operate, primarily because a pin must be inserted to retain the garment supporting position. Further, extraction of the pin must be done blindly because material of a garment obscures visual location of the pin.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,531,028, F. B. Vazquez discloses a nonmetallic collapsible clothes hanger of unitary construction having arms that may be flexed to an unfolded position for use or to a folded position for storage. Vazquez's hanger requires two hands to deploy and includes no tensioning means for automatic deployment to a garment supporting position after insertion into a garment. He neither considers nor suggests such applications. Moreover, Vazquez teaches the use of remarkably complex pinning and latching elements in his injection-molded design, which uses improvements made in nonmetallic materials technology recently preceding issuance of his patent.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,632, J. H. Collis discloses a flexible garment hanger formed of a one-pieced, molded plastic-like material with several flexible hinges. His design includes a locking bar below the body of the hanger secured to both arms by means of similar flexible hinges and a stop member projecting medially from the locking bar with two additional flexible hinges. Collis' hanger requires two hands to operate and provides no means for automatic restoration of a garment supporting position upon insertion into a garment. Collis' invention uses the recently preceding improvements in plastic molding and materials technology that allow feasible plastic hinges and is otherwise merely an improved garment hanger that can be collapsed for storage.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,581, R. M. LaMont discloses a unitary collapsible hanger formed of plastic that includes hanger arms attached to a hook by plastic hinges. LaMont includes a nonmetallic C-shaped spring element made possible by recently preceding improvements in injection-molded plastic materials technology. When LaMont's hanger is collapsed, the spring is in its relaxed configuration and the center hinge is disposed below the spring hinges. When his hanger is in the garment supporting position, the center hinge is above the spring hinges and engages a stop member so that bearing surfaces engage shoulders of the stop member to lock the hanger in its garment supporting position. Thus, although LaMont employs a plastic spring, his spring does not act to force the hanger into a garment supporting position following insertion into a garment, but merely operates as a lock tensioning means for holding the hanger in the garment supporting position.
Accordingly, there is still a clearly-felt need in the art for a simple, inexpensive, nonmetallic (rust-free) garment hanger that can be collapsed with one-hand for insertion into or removal from a garment and which automatically springs into the garment supporting position upon release. Such hanger should be suitable for use with small garment openings and should automatically adopt a garment supporting position after insertion into a garment. These unresolved problems and deficiencies are clearly felt in the art and are solved by our invention in the manner described below.